Story gems for you to treasure!

We interrupt this program…

I’m taking the next couple of days away from the Internet. (Gasp! Thud!) It’s necessary, as I have a novella due Monday and an outline for another to create and send in at the same time. I love being busy on fiction projects (and having the work, lol) but the deadline pressure isn’t for the faint of heart–or the pantser.

If you don’t know, the pantser is the writer who “waits for inspiration to strike” and then runs with a story idea. No outline, no synopsis, just a general idea in her head of the beginning middle and end of the story. She allows the characters to “talk” to her and through her, believing the end result will be a sparkling vibrant piece of literary steak.

Yeah. Doesn’t quite work when you have contracts and deadlines and a day job. Turns into chopped liver pretty quickly.

I try not to be a complete pantser anymore. It is a luxury I simply can no longer afford if I want to build a career. Unforunately, I have a Crow mentality. I am distracted easily by the sparkly. As in, “Gianni’s motivation is that he always gets who he wants, when he wants because he–ooh, shiny!”

So I at least attempt to write down a one page synopsis or story concept. Even if I don’t look at it often, I know it’s there for those instances when I become paralyzed by that frickin’ blinking cursor on that very empty screen. I still pants it when it comes to dialogue. I love to get my characters to talk to each other–their personalities really shine that way. I think that also helps to avoid Big Mistunderstanding Syndrome, in which the main issue between the hero and heroine could be solved by just talking to each other for five minutes.

Speaking of which, my five minutes for this post are up. I must finishing packing ot go check myself into a hotel room tomorrow. See you next week!